We love the challenge every Meatless Monday of making an enlightened vegetarian dish out of a traditional meat dish. So, it was inevitable that we would revamp the classic pantry standby dish – Spaghetti alla Carbonara.
The Anne half of Team Triple-F needs to avoid gluten, but rather than simply replacing the semolina flour-powered spaghetti with another grain-based wheat pasta substitute, we thought we’d use spaghetti squash instead, making it low-carb to boot as a bonus (not to mention even more nutritious). Then all we did was replace the bacon with a vegetarian “bacon.”
This is Anne’s recipe, but Donna worked on it as well. Donna’s first batch of squash had to be thrown out – it was a soggy, overcooked mess. Donna *highly* recommends cooking the squash at 400 degrees for exactly 30 minutes. Exactly. Any less and the squash will be too tough, and any more and the squash will be a watery soggy mess.
Continue reading ‘Meatless Monday: Spaghetti Squash alla Low-Carb-onara’
Published on
September 27, 2009 in
Appetizers, Entrees, Healthy Fare, Side Dishes and Vegetarian Entrees.
Tags: cream soup, low carb, low glycemic, soup, spinach, summer vegetables, Swiss chard, zucchini.
Fall is upon us and the end-of-summer bounty must be used! Now!!! Continue reading ‘End-of-Season Cream of Summer Soup’
If you need one last way to use up that zucchini that has been making you feel guilty, here it is! I’ve tried planks, slices, breaded, deep fried – I just love crispy zucchini any which way!
Most of the food blogs that have written about crispy zucchini as an appetizer have cut the zucchini into planks. I like thin slices because then the whole thing is crispy, not just the outside. The trick to making these crispy is to slice them on the diagonal so that you increase the surface area and the water can bake out. These are easy and fast and can be used as a side dish or an appetizer. You can use the frugal cheese in the green can for this – it is so finely ground that it adds the right texture. Be sure to spray the wire baking rack with oil, because the slices will stick if you don’t. Bake them in a screaming hot oven to add extra crunchiness to the crust. Yum!
Continue reading ‘Oven-Fried Zucchini Crisps’
Published on
September 7, 2009 in
Appetizers, Gluten Free, Healthy Fare, Side Dishes, Vegan Recipes and Vegetarian Entrees.
Tags: low carb, low glycemic, peanut dressing, peanut sauce, salad recipe, spinach, Swiss chard, Thai recipes, wilted salad.
It’s strange. I don’t like peanut butter, but a good spicy Thai peanut sauce is one of my favorite things. I love it drizzled on just about everything. I had trouble making good peanut sauce until it finally dawned on me: to have really good Thai peanut sauce, you must start with really good peanut butter. It was one of those “Duh” moments for me! So, forget the popular brands and go for the good stuff for this recipe. It is a little more expensive, but you only use a little and it is well worth it. I like the all-natural kind that says “dark roasted” on the label, and only has two ingredients: salt and peanuts. I made this recipe with the idea of serving it cold on salads, so it is more like a vinaigrette than a sauce you would serve warm with chicken.
With a garden full our second crop of of spinach and Swiss chard, I have plenty of dark greens to spare, and they are a perfect match with peanuts, it turns out! I very lightly and briefly sauteed some rough chopped spinach for less than a minute until it just barely started to wilt. You could also blanch it quickly in boiling water. I then drained it and drizzled it with my Thai peanut sauce recipe, and sprinkled with some diced roasted peanuts. Wow! Such an explosion of flavors!
This peanut sauce is so delicious I just want to sit and eat it with a spoon!
Continue reading ‘My Salad Days: Spicy Thai Peanut Drizzled Wilted Spinach’
I am a huge mushroom fan, and these tasty little mushroom pancakes can be used in so many ways. If you love mushrooms, too, this is a fabulous recipe component to have on hand. You can make a big batch and keep them in the fridge and use just like you would crepes. They are thinner than regular pancakes, but thicker than crepes.
You can serve them so many ways: hot with a little ricotta spread on top and then sauteed vegetables; like a lasagna with marinara sauce and cheese; or cold and turn them into tasty salad stacks, which I did last night. This is a great thing to make if you are looking to use salad greens and veggies but want something a little different and more substantial. We ate them in stacks last night, but we also folded and filled them, like a soft taco.
I made them this time with whole wheat flour to lower the carbs and make them healthier. I was surprised to learn that I like the whole wheat version BETTER than my original all-purpose flour version. There is something earthy and rustic about the whole wheat-mushroom combination. And, both the mushrooms and whole wheat are nutritional powerhouses!
Continue reading ‘My Salad Days: Easy Savory Mushroom Pancakes Recipe’
I recently discovered a fab side dish that you can throw together with an ingredient that you can always keep in your pantry: canned white beans. So, if company shows up at the last minute, you can always grill something and smash some beans!
This dish has the same ‘comfort’ factor as mashed potatoes, and yet is so much healthier. Beans are almost always in the budget-friendly Top Ten Healthy Foods and Super foods lists. They are packed with protein and are a very frugal protein source.
This ‘mash’ has much more flavor than mashed potatoes, and is so, so , soooooo much easier to make! No peeling and boiling chunks of potatoes. I am very excited to have discovered this fun and flavorful side dish, and I couldn’t wait to share it with all of you! It will become one of my top side dish standbys.
Continue reading ‘Fab Frugal Friday: White Bean Smash’
